EVENT: FOODIEMONDAY/BLOGHOP THEME: #231 CONDIMENTS MAGIC What are Condiments? A condiment is a spice, sauce or any preparation of several ingredients that is generally served with a dish to enhance or compliment the flavour of the dish or food preparation. For example different sauces or gravies are made to enhance the flavour of vegetables, meat, fish, pasta etc. When we make dips, dressings, chutneys, spice blends, they help to compliment a dish for example when we made podi masala to enjoy with rice, idlis, dosa etc. Condiments can also be simple ingredients like salt, pepper powder, chili powder etc. FoodieMonday/Bloghop Group The reason my topic today is on condiments is because this week’s FoodieMonday Group theme is Creative Condiments. Renu requested that we…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: FOODIEMONDAY/BLOGHOP THEME: #223 What are Ambode/Masala Vada? Ambode are masala vada made from chana dal with a few other ingredients added. Also known as Masala Vada or Dal Vada, Ambode is a famous street snack in Karnataka. Ambode is also served as a tea time snack with filter coffee in many homes. Besides chana dal (chickpea lentil) being the main star of this crunchy, crispy, mouth watering snack, chopped fresh dill, fresh coriander, onion, curry leaves, rice flour, green chillis, ginger and a bit of coconut is added. All these different ingredients makes them taste so different from Vatidar Bhajia which are quite popular with my family as a tea time snack. I took the liberty of adding a tablespoon of urad dal (split…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: SHHH COOKING SECRETLY THEME: TELANGANA CUISINE A bit about the group: October took Shhh Cooking Secretly group to Telangana, where I got the opportunity to make Attu Tunukala/Tunaka Koora. This group is where members get together to cook a dish on the decided theme. We are paired up and give each other two secret ingredients to cook with. This group was started by Priya of Priya’s Versatile Recipes. Other members have to then guess the two secret ingredients till we share the recipe link. Its a fun group and along the way have made some good friends. A bit about Telangana Telangana is the 29th state of India, formed after separating from Andhra Pradesh in 2014. Hyderabad still remains the capital for both states. Situated on…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: SHHH COOKING SECRETLY THEME: ODIA CUISINE May is when participants of Shhhh Cooking Secretly had to find an apt dish from the Odia Cuisine with the ingredients given by their partners.Orissa as it was known before and now known as Odisha, is a state that I’d love to visit one day. When one talks of Odisha then Bhubaneswar and Puri , the land of Jagannath Temple comes to mind. Other reasons to visit the state is for the art and craft, the beaches, the wildlife and Kalinga Architecture, home to both the white and Bengal tigers, to watch Odissi dances and to enjoy the cuisine. Odisha borders four states, Jharkhand in the north, West Bengal in northeast, Andhra Pradesh in the southwest and Chhattisgarh…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: FOODIEMONDAY/BLOGHOP THEME: #195 THIRD LETTER MAGIC My first taste of an absolutely tasty red Thai curry was in Bali when I visited it for the first time in 2017. The curry was served in a coconut shell. As I had complained that I was not able to taste a veggie version of the Thai cuisine, my hubby’s best friend and his wife who live in Bangkok made sure that I would not leave Thailand without tasting some good Thai curries. Just the night before we were to leave Bangkok, they treated us to a vegan restaurant called Veganerie at the Silom Complex. While they didn’t want to eat Thai food, hubby and I ordered Thai curries. I ordered green Thai curry with aubergine and…
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Continue ReadingThe word Shorba originates from the word chorba, sorpa, shurpa. This soup is widely enjoyed in the Middle Eastern Countries, some parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. It is believed that the soup originates from Persia. Hot salted water with added meats, vegetables made this a versatile dish that even travelers could make. No wonder popularity of this healthy and easy to make dish spread far and wide. India was introduced to Shorba during the Mughal Era. Vegetarians then came up with their version of shorba. My favorite is a tomato shorba anytime, which I tend to make so often. When I made some Qubani Naan, I wanted to pair it with a curry. However, hubby insisted that I make a soup and before I…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: SHHH COOKING SECRETLY THEME: NAGALAND CUISINE Nagaland, one of the seven sister state is mountainous state bordering Myanmar in the east, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam to the north, Assam to the west and Manipur to the south. Home to diverse indigenous tribes, their markets and festivals celebrate diverse cultures. I had no idea that the capital city of the state, Kohima, suffered heavy fighting during World War 2. Nagaland is one of the smallest states of India, but by no means backward. Literacy rate is 79.55% and the official language is English. Though the 16 different tribes may have different cultures, ethnic dresses and different languages, the official language unifies them as one. Majority of the people from Nagaland are Christians by faith. 20%…
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Continue ReadingEVENT:FOODIEMONDAY/BLOGHOPTHEME:#186 PLANT BASED MILK RECIPES What is all this hype about consuming non dairy products? Nowadays vegan cheese, yogurt, milk, spreads, cream cheese, etc are readily available in the supermarkets in the western countries. These all have been developed for people who follow the vegan diet. People who follow vegan diets do not consume anything that is made or comes out of an animal. So that means they do not consume normal or dairy milk and its products. While I personally still need a lot of convincing to become a vegan, I don’t frown or look down on those who follow the diet. Follow what your heart and mind says. What I find nigglingly irritating is that most airlines now presume that if your meal…
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Continue ReadingEVENT:FOODIEMONDAY/BLOGHOP THEME:#184 PEGAN DIET Nope, its not a spelling mistake the word is definitely PEGAN. When Veena who blogs at Veena’s Veg nation suggested the theme, I too thought that she made a spelling mistake as the nearest I could think of was vegan. She quickly clarified that it was Pegan and sent a link for us to read. Last Monday was the day when we all, except Veena of course discovered a new diet Pegan. I think after the theme was announced most of us spent the evening reading about it and discovering what its all about. Also what followed was endless discussions and I think all of us were trying to figure out what the others are going to make, but all guarded…
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Continue ReadingEVENT: A- Z CHALLENGE THEME : A DISH BEGINNING WITH THE LETTER E What is the A- Z Challenge? Well, we’re a Facebook group and every alternate month the participants make a dish with the relevant letter. The group was started in May 2018 by Jolly Makkar and Vidya Narayan. For January we have to post a recipe using an ingredient that begins with E. I decided to use eggplants. I could have used other ingredients like eggs, elephant yam but stuck with eggplants for one main reason. I make baigan bharta often as my hubby loves it. I serve it either with rotis or bajra rotla. When I had to decide a dish for this challenge I made up my mind that this time my…
